How To Learn a Language Fast – Which Foreign Language Should I Learn?

by greenMinimalism

It always surprises me when people ask: “which language should I learn?” For it shows that simply learning a language, any language, is a higher priority for people than actually assimilating a particular culture. It’s a very American question to ask.

Traditionally, you’d learn the languages that would advance you in life – for instance, up to the Victorian times you’d need to learn Latin if you wanted to penetrate the educated elite in England. In fact, even the Bible was off-limits unless you could read Latin until Luther’s controversial translation in the 16th century.

Yet nowadays we native English speakers have the luxury of expecting everyone else to respect the imperialism of our language. Knowing a foreign language doesn’t seem to be necessary at all, and if you do desire to learn one, you’re spoiled by choice.

“I dreamed I spoke in another’s language,
I dreamed I lived in another’s skin,
I dreamed I was my own beloved,
I dreamed I was a tiger’s kin.” – Clive Barker

Most American schools, if they teach languages at all, teach Spanish for obvious reasons. In England, French is the most commonly studied language by students – in fact, French is the most popular ‘second language’ of all, which some find slightly mysterious given that Spanish and Chinese are far more important global languages today.

Okay, it’s not that mysterious, except maybe when Commonwealth territories like Australia make French part of the curriculum when Sydney is over 10500 miles away from La Ville-Lumière. Yet the influence of French on English is palpably enormous, so I maintain that conquering French is a logical step for any English speaker to make.

However, the best type of motivation is necessity. If you were air-landed into Hungary and forbidden to leave, then you’d pick up some working Hungarian naturally. Failing necessity, my advice is the same as Steve M’s, who commented on the preceding post in this series: “I think a sine qua non for learning a foreign language is an interest in the target country/culture.”

Failing interest in a particular culture, the next best way to choose is to select a relatively simple or widespread tongue. Spanish is the perfect combination of ease-of-learning and ubiquity. The table below includes the most common languages with the number of speakers. The difficulty column was written after a brief discussion with some fellow linguists; please feel free to contest any of the ratings:

Language

Difficulty for English speaker

Native speakers

Esperanto

0/5

0m

Italian

1/5

58m

Spanish

1/5

376m

Portugese

2/5

203m

Dutch

2/5

30m

French

2/5

213m

German

3/5

91m

Polish

3/5

38m

Swedish

3/5

10m

Russian

4/5

167m

Hindi

4/5

487m

Latin

4/5

0

Modern Greek

4/5

11m

Mandarin Chinese

4/5

1000m

Arabic

5/5

285m

Japanese

5/5

127m

Korean

5/5

70m

Two big mistakes made by beginning linguists are to either pick a challenging language or to try to learn too many at once. Initial enthusiasm will get you far, but you will soon run out of willpower if you make the job so difficult for yourself.

Recently, my friend Jake tried to learn Chinese. At first, he was astounded by its relative lack of grammar and intuitive way of compounding nouns. He continually attempted to galvanize me into learning Chinese too, although I declined, knowing how much of a time commitment it would take to start learning a language where you have very few footholds. Sure enough, Jake, who is monolingual, gave up on Chinese just a few weeks later due to his frustration at continually forgetting all the new vocabulary.

My best advice to people (unless you are tremendously inspired to study another language) is always start with one of the big European languages. Spanish or Italian are ideal. Once you have one, the others become increasingly effortless to acquire. In fact, I’ll soon write about how you could speak 6 languages (Italian, Spanish, French, Portugese and German plus English) to a high standard by studying for just an hour a day over the course of some years.

These languages also possess the finest literature. Reading a classic novel in a foreign language is one of the greatest rewards of learning; I won’t forget the feeling of being able to fully understand Proust for the first time in its silky smooth French.

Another option to consider is starting with Esperanto. Studies have shown that once you know Esperanto, learning another language is much easier. I have only looked at Esperanto once in the past, in one of those dangerously ephemeral bursts of enthusiasm which I warned against above, but I remember that its grammar was so minimal and logical that you’d make rapid, encouraging progress.

So my final verdict is: if you’re just learning a language for fun, Spanish, Italian, French or Esperanto are perfect and safe choices. There’s still a lot of choice right there! On the other hand, unless you’re visiting South Korea, it’s best to avoid beginning a project like learning Korean, which will take disciplined study over a large period of your life and will not show a great number of tangible benefits.

2 Comments to “How To Learn a Language Fast – Which Foreign Language Should I Learn?”

Eric, interesting post. I agree with all that you mentioned– the biggest factor should be out of interest, but short bursts of interest will not be able to provide you with enough motivation to continue your studies, sadly. I too picked up Esperanto for a short while, but then my sudden burst of interest left as quickly as it came…